US Builds 4 Bases on Iraq-Iran Border

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The US military has constructed four advanced bases 20 miles from
Iraq's border with Iran, a senior Iraqi police officer has announced.

The bases, equipped with missile launch pads, have been set up over the past
four months on the Iraq-Iran border; Iraqi al-Noor newspaper quoted the official
as saying.

He added that one of the bases has been located 30 km (20 miles) from the first
border town with Iran and houses remote-controlled launching pads as well as
radar systems similar to ones used in Kuwait during the first Persian Gulf war.

"The bases do not serve military intentions and its staff would not be military
personnel."

According to the official, the bases are only
precautionary measures in case of a military strike against Israel by Iran.

A team consisting of high-profile US marines, the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) alongside Pentagon experts oversee the bases.

Iran and the US are locked in a row over Tehran's civilian nuclear activities.

The United States and its close ally Israel accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear
weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to
substantiate their allegations. Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting
that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide
power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would
eventually run dry.

Iran has also insisted that it would continue enriching uranium because it needs
to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it is building in the
southwestern town of Darkhoveyn as well as its first nuclear power plant in the
southern port city of Bushehr.

Tel Aviv and Washington have recently intensified their threats to launch
military action against Iran to make Tehran drop what they allege to be a
non-peaceful nuclear program, while a recent report by 16 US intelligence bodies
endorsed the civilian nature of Iran's programs.

Following the US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and similar reports by the
IAEA head - one in November and the other one in February - which praised Iran's
truthfulness about key aspects of its past nuclear activities and announced
settlement of outstanding issues with Tehran, any effort to impose further
sanctions or launch military attack on Iran seems to be completely irrational.

The February report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy
Agency, praised Iran's cooperation in clearing up all of the past questions over
its nuclear program, vindicating Iran's nuclear program and leaving no
justification for any new UN sanctions.

Following the said reports by US and international bodies, many world states
have called the UN Security Council pressure against Tehran unjustified,
demanding that Iran's case must be normalized and returned from the UNSC to the
IAEA.